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FESTIVALS Switzerland

Black Movie celebrates its 20th birthday with gusto

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- The Geneva-based festival, an unmissable rendezvous for indie film buffs, has unveiled the programme for its milestone 20th edition

Black Movie celebrates its 20th birthday with gusto
Dead Souls by Wang Bing

The 2019 edition (18-27 January) of Black Movie will have an impressive 106 films on offer (including two world, two European and 54 Swiss premieres), hailing from 56 countries. They will be scattered across 11 sections and will be enhanced by the presence of 30 international guests.

The "A suivre…" (“To Be Continued…”) section will spotlight works by filmmakers who have been friends of Black Movie for years now: Apichatpong Weerasethakul with BlueHong Sang-soo (Grass), Sergei Loznitsa (Victory Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), who will also lead an unmissable master class, and Wang Bing, who will be presenting his latest documentary, Dead Souls [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (notable for its eight-hour running time).

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In order to celebrate its 20th birthday in style, the Geneva-based gathering is this year offering nine of its filmmaker friends the chance to choose a movie that is in some way iconic for them. This intriguing and varied selection will be available to watch in the "Carte blanche à suivre…" section. The filmmakers invited to take part are: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Amat EscalanteJoão Rui Guerra da Mata, João Pedro RodriguesBrillante MendozaCarlos ReygadasZhang MiaoyanPen-ek Ratanaruang and Anocha Suwichakornpong.

Meanwhile, another section will be curated by Edouard Waintrop, the former artistic director of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and currently the director of the Geneva-based Cinémas du Grütli, who will be presenting his own personal carte blanche. All in all, six features, conjuring up both recent and distant memories of his past life at Cannes, will be grouped together in "The Fortnight as Seen by Edouard Waintrop" section.

Black Movie will this year host two major sections dedicated to cinematic novelties: "Cherchez la femme" (“Look for the Woman”) and "Esprit de famille" (“Family Spirit”). The former will question the female identity through seven films, including El viaje de Keta by Julio Bekhór and Fernando Sama and the Romanian title Several Conversations about a Very Tall Girl by Bogdan Theodor Olteanu. The latter, meanwhile, will allow audiences to ponder the concept of community through works by directors of the likes of Spaniard Isaki Lacuesta (Between Two Waters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile
]
) and Greece’s Babis Makridis, who will be introducing Pity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Babis Makridis
film profile
]
, as well as Cyril Aris (The Swing).

For its part, the "Nomades, XXI" section will concentrate on the unique and touching journeys undertaken by a group of people in search of a better life. Among the movies selected here are A Land Imagined [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Yeo Siew Hua (Golden Leopard at Locarno 2018), Central Airport THF [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karim Aïnouz
film profile
]
 by Karim Aïnouz and Poisson d’or, poisson africain by Thomas Grand and Moussa Diop. The human being, this time as he grapples with power and weapons, is also at the heart of another section entitled "Du côté de la force" (“Siding with Strength”), which will offer works by Nasib Farah and Soren Steen Jespersen (Lost Warrior [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Talal Derki (Of Fathers and Sons [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and Kamal Tabrizi (Sly).

The "Les dessous de l’histoire" (“The Underside of History”) section will home in on the complex connections between history and cinema. Audiences will be able to savour works by Malek Bensmaïl (The Battle of Algiers, a Film Within History) and the eagerly awaited new film by Ciro Guerra and Cristina GallegoBirds of Passage [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Finally, the "Wakamatsu, l’enfant terrible" section will be dedicated to the Japanese director of the same name. Incidentally, this edition of Black Movie will hand out four prizes, including the Critics’ Award, the Petit Black Movie Payot Award and the Young People’s Award.

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(Translated from French)

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